Thursday, 31 December 2015

ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES AND APPLICATIONS OF HELICAL GEARS

ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES AND APPLICATIONS OF HELICAL GEARS

We have discussed in our previous post about the
basic of helical gears, where we have seen the various characteristics of
helical gears, now we are going to concentrate here about the advantages,
disadvantages and applications of helical gears.

So let us see the various advantages and
disadvantages of using helical gear

Advantages
of helical gear

As we have discussed in our previous post that in
case of helical gear, engagement of helical gear teeth will be gradual and
engagement will start from one end of a tooth of helical gear with the other
tooth of mating helical gear and spread continuously throughout the tooth as
gear rotates. Such gradual engagement of helical gear will provide the silent
and smooth operation.

Helical gears could be used to transmit the motion
and power between two parallel shafts and also between two non parallel shafts.

Helical gears will have more capability to transmit
load between two parallel shafts as compared to similar module and equivalent
width of spur gears.

There will be less wear and tear in case of helical
gear during operation as compared to wear and tear in case spur gears operation
as if we consider helical gears operation, load will be distributed between
several teeth at any time and that is why there will be less wear and tear in
operation of helical gears.

Also read

Disadvantages
of helical gear

When a pair of helical gear meshes with
each other, there will be creation of axial thrust load on gear due to helix
angle of gear teeth and therefore gearbox designer has to select such bearings
those are able to absorb and support this axial thrust load.

There will be sliding movement between
mating gear teeth in case of helical gear and heat generation will be more as
compared to spur gear application. Therefore helical gear requires good quality
of lubrication.

One pair of mating helical gear will have
less efficiency as compared to efficiency of mating spur gears of similar size.

Power loss in case of helical gear train
operation will be more as compared to spur gear train operation.

Manufacturing and designing cost of helical
gears will be more as compared to spur gear designing and manufacturing cost.

Applications of helical gears

Helical gears are normally preferred to
work under heavy load efficiently. When we need silent operation such as in
automobile applications, we prefer to use helical gears as such gears work
silently and smoothly.

Areas of applications of helical gears
are very large but let us find few applications here where helical gears are
preferred to use.

Helical gears are used in fertilizer
industries, Printing industries and earth moving industries

Helical gears are also used in steel, Rolling
mills, section rolling mills, power and port industries.

Do you have suggestions in respect of
advantages, disadvantages and applications of helical gears? Please provide
your suggestions and feedbacks in comment box which is provided at the end of this
article.

We will discuss the various differences
between spur gears and helical gears in our next post.